This week, I would like to tell you something you do not hear enough of.

Something that perhaps no one ever bothered to ever tell you. Or, something some of you may already know.

Today, I want to tell you … the world is a good place.

Yes, you can go back and reread that sentence again, if you’d like. The world is a good place.

You see, we always talk about, think about and hear about the negatives.

And there are a lot of negatives.

But, for the most part, the world is a good place.

Think about what is our source in discovering what is going on in this world?

For the most part, it is the media. It is news coverage.

It is comments made on social media. I can tell you that a television news crew is rarely going to rush to a scene to report on an act of kindness.

I can tell you that the top story of a 5 a.m. or an 11 p.m. newscast is usually never going to be a humanity piece focusing on compassionate acts of kindness.

That kind of story doesn’t attract viewers. That type of news coverage is not what draws a crowd of spectators and rubberneckers.

Instead, society has us turn our attention on that one gunman, that lone bomber, that one serial killer who tries to destroy some of what is good in this world.

Are all people good? Of course not. There are people who hate us simply because we are Americans. There are evil people who despise others simply because they do not believe in the same god they do.

And yet, for the most part, the world is good. I just thought that this week, I would remind you of that.

I mean, we all need to hear it every once in a while. It’s quite easy to forget.

There are couples who do not want to have children because they say they do not want to bring a baby into this world. They fear for how that child will grow up. So, they never get the chance to know the joy a son or daughter can bring.

Then, there are people who fear for the children, the grandchildren who are already here, constantly worrying about their well-being and never having any peace of mind.

It’s no wonder.

We are given so much negative information each and every day.

E.E. Cummings once wrote, “Whenever you think, or you believe, or you know … you’re a lot of other people. But the moment you feel … you’re nobody but yourself.”

He said, “To be nobody but yourself, in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight — and never stop fighting.”

We must try not to let those few who are set on destroying us, set on dividing us, set on removing that which is good in this world, succeed.

I believe the world is a good place. I have seen it firsthand in the people who have briefly come into my life than for no other reason than to be of some kind of help for me or my family.

I have seen it firsthand when people foster or adopt a child or a shelter animal because they are in need of a home and in need of someone’s, anyone’s love.

I have seen it in the miracles God has given me on more than one occasion, using strangers to help guide me in the direction I need to go. Yes, every once in a while, we need to stop and realize that the world is a pretty good place after all.

(Stenger is the community editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times. She can be contacted at jstenger@heraldstaronline.com.)